Friday, February 22, 2013

WiHM: Our Favorite Female Roles In Horror, Day 6

Today we offer not our usual two, but three actresses who got our attention in three memorable and controversial films. These women put it all out there, holding nothing back for the beauty of the performance. Thanks to Marie for spotlighting these three remarkable roles in horror, portrayed by a trio of impressive actresses.

Pollyanna McIntosh - The Woman

Director Lucky McKee is known for his explicit and
controversial filmmaking, and he did not disappoint with his 2011 film The Woman.

Although it stars one of his
favorite recurring actresses, Angela Bettis, I’m going to highlight another
female performance in the movie.

The film is centered around the Cleek family, consisted of
mother Belle (Angela Bettis), daughters Peggy and Darlin’, son Brian, and
father Chris (Sean Bridgers). The well-off family live in a somewhat secluded
area with surrounding woodlands that Chris often goes hunting in. On one of
these hunts, he finds some unexpected game, a woman. That woman is played by
Scottish actress Pollyanna McIntosh.

McIntosh takes on the hefty role of a feral woman who Chris
decides to capture and chain up in his basement. Instead of keeping it a
secret, he fully involves his family in “civilizing” her. This woman could not
be at the hands of a more psychotic family.

The subject matter of this movie is as dark as it gets, and
it takes guts to take on a role like this. Pollyanna’s character may endure a
rape scene and plenty of gruesome torture at the hands of her captors but it is
not in vain. She gets her share of revenge.

Even though Pollyanna has not a single coherent line, she
still nails this role and takes all the criticism it gets with stride.

Yum Jung Ah (Yeom Jeong Ah)- A Tale of Two Sisters

Before Jee-woon Kim made I Saw the Devil, he made a film based on
a Korean folktale called A Tale of Two
Sisters.

The two sisters in question are
Soo-mi and Soo-yeon, who are moving back into their childhood home with their
father and a new mother. Stepmother Eun-joo (Yeom Jeong Ah) is cruel and
controlling, and becomes jealous at any affections the girls have towards their
own father. As tensions rise between the sisters and stepmother, it is hard to
tell which is a more trying problem—Eun-joo, or the ghost that is haunting
their house.

Yeom Jeong Ah plays this complex,
multi-demensional role with grace. Her performance is apt and on-target, and
boy, is she easy to hate.

I’m not sure if I could call this
a “favorite” female role, as it is downright disturbing, but I must give it to
Ms. Gainsbourg for taking it on. I, for one, will never look at her quite the
same again.

In Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, Charlotte Gainsbourg plays an
emotionally disturbed woman distraught by the accidental death of her son, who
she blames herself for since she was having sex with her husband when he died.

Gainsbourg clearly isn’t worried
about getting nude for a film, as she bares everything—I mean everything in this one. It even seems
like she is one of those rare actresses who truly has no limits, as we watch
her mutilate herself on screen.

Although the film was very
well-received in Europe, von Trier has been accused of being a misogynist. That
you can debate for yourselves, but one thing you cannot deny is that Charlotte
Gainsbourg is one dedicated actress.

I'm one of the few who liked The Woman and I loved Pollyanna in it! She was everything the character was supposed to be - feral and nasty and uninhibited. Her taking revenge on the Cleeks is an awesome gore scene, love it!

Shocks are so much better absorbed with the knees bent...

We Wrote That:

*Christine Hadden is the creator, editor, and head writer of the Rondo-nominated blog Fascination with Fear and has been an obsessed horror fan for longer than many of her readers have been alive. She can overlook movie plot holes in exchange for style and atmosphere, rejects both the 3D and found footage phenomenons, values high gore content when done right, always prefers practical effects over CGI, and has an undying love of vampires. She considers Norman Bates her homeboy and claims Jaws as her favorite film. She has written for Fangoria and Paracinema magazines, MoviePilot, and Eli Roth's horror app The Crypt. She enjoys Kentucky bourbon and red, red wine. But not together.

Contributing Writer

*Marie Robinson is an aspiring folklore expert, published writer, and obvious old soul from St. Louis, MO. She considers Roman Polanski one of her favorite directors, The Sentinel among the scariest of films she's seen, and has read both Algernon Blackwood and M.R. James - making her wise beyond her years. In her spare time, she enjoys wandering through misty cemeteries, seeking knowledge and proof of paranormal activity, and prepping her next frightening short story. Besides Fascination with Fear, she contributes to Destroy the Brain and has written for Eli Roth's horror app: The Crypt.